VIDEO: Truckies, firie save motorist from fiery car crash

Tara Miko
Reporter
Tara started with APN in 2010 after graduating with a journalism and politics degree from Griffith University in Brisbane. After two-and-a-half years working on APN papers in the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland, she joined the team at The Chronicle in February 2013. In September that year she took over the reins of the Rural Weekly.

Peter Hardwick
Reporter
Peter started in 1976 as apprentice typesetter/comp and has 32 years with The Chronicle in three stints (in between working/holidays in UK/Europe, Brisbane and Melbourne). Entered editorial from comp room in 1996.

Heroic Westbrook rescue:
QFES Commander Urban Operations Paul Evans talks about how he and two passing truck drivers saved the life of a man trapped inside a burning car.

UPDATE: Two truck drivers and a passing firefighter saved the life of a man trapped in a burning vehicle following a rollover last night.

It was the quick actions of two long-haul truck drivers and passing Queensland Fire and Emergency Service Commander Urban Operations Paul Evans that saved a man from being incinerated inside his vehicle at a crash scene south of Westbrook last night.

A passenger in the vehicle had been thrown from the vehicle which rolled through a barbed wire fence.

Mr Evans said his first thought on seeing the scene was a person had died in the incident.

"They were extremely lucky, especially the man in the car," he said.

"The quick work of the transport industry people certainly saved what was going to be a fatal as a result of incineration."

Two truck drivers saved the life of a man trapped in this rolled vehicle which caught on fire south of Westbrook.Tara Miko

Mr Evans was returning to Toowoomba from Pittsworth when about 9pm, came across the crash scene off the Gore Hwy.

"There was two heavy transport people pulled up and there was a lot of activity over in the paddock and certainly a single vehicle had rolled," he said.

"The information I got was there was a person still inside and there was fire surrounding the vehicle.

"(The car was on fire) and it was the quick work of the transport workers with their on board fire extinguishers as well as my own, we were able to contain the fire and keep it away from the patients."

Emergency services including the QFES, police and Queensland Ambulance worked as a team to secure the area and treat the man inside the vehicle.

"My initial thought was I would have a deceased as a result of incineration and fortunately we were able to avoid that," he said.

"So although it is a serious incident, the outcome has been a great save and we haven't lost the life of a member of our community.

"The emergency services - that's the police, QFES and ambulance - continually train and work together so we come together as a united team and that's what the residents of Toowoomba and surrounding districts deserve, and that's what we pride ourselves on."

EARLIER: Two men were taken to Toowoomba Hospital after sustaining injuries in a car crash near Westbrook Wednesday night.

A Queensland Fire and Emergency Service spokeswoman said one of the men had been thrown from the vehicle which rolled off the Gore Hwy just after 9pm.

The other man was trapped inside the car which caught fire and had to be cut from the vehicle by emergency crews using hydraulic rescue equipment.

The vehicle fire was quickly extinguished but the Gore Hwy was closed in all directions while the scene was cleared.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman said a 49-year-old man had been taken to Toowoomba Hospital with spinal injuries and he was awaiting transfer by ambulance to the Princess Alexander Hospital in Brisbane this morning.

The second man was believed to have been discharged from the hospital.